Journal

1. Are disengaged students at your school feeling safe?
Enrolments in alternate schools are increasing (De La
Ossa, 2005). In Queensland, enrolments have increased
by 50% to 4400 students across 28 schools and 44
campuses in just 12 months(Independent Schools
Queensland, 2021). Whilst lots of reasons for this
increase can be assumed, little evidence can be found
as to why this need has exploded.
Whilst there is no standard definition for an alternate
school in literature (Farrelly, 2012), in Australia they fall
under the legislation as Special Assistance Schools
(Education(General Provisions) Regulation 2017).
These schools. These schools provide education to
relevant students (ones who otherwise would not be
engaged in education) and pay no tuition fees.
Research Project
I undertook a research project at one of these Special
Assistance Schools that has 2 campuses to try and
identify what it meant to be safe at an alternate school.
The project surveyed young people to get a students
perspective on what makes an alternate school safe.
Given the context of the research, it was able to
collect data from students who between them come
from over 20 different mainstream settings. All of
whom have only been at the Special Assistance School
for 2 years so recall of their past schooling experience
was still relevant and comparable.
So I ask you this question, do the
disengaged young people at your
school feel safe?
Findings
What makes you feel safe at school? 33% of young
people highlighted the way they were treated and
how they connected to the school was the primary
reason for them feeling safe at school. This was only
marginally higher than their Emotions and Feelings
about at school (25%), The Structure of the School
(21.4%) and People at the School (20.2%). The above
results indicate the need for a multifaceted approach
to safety within a school due to the variety of young
people needs.
Of the young peoples coded responses to what makes
them feel unsafe at school, 51.7% outlined How They
Were Treated and How They Connected to The
School. A further 29.2% said People (teachers,
students, staff) was the reason for them feeling
unsafe. One could infer, that the 2 are related
suggesting 80.9% of the reason disengaged young
people felt unsafe in their mainstream school was due
to the way they were treated by people.
To highlight the significance of the above, and how
relevant this information was for disengaged young
people, they were asked if they felt safe at their last
school. 77.2% of disengaged young people said they
didn’t feel safe at their last school.
Young people were also asked to identify what made
them feel safe at the current school (the context of
which the research was undertaken). 94.4% of young
people said they feel safe at their current school,
compared to 22.8% feeling safe at their last school.
60
40
20
0
C1 Total
Number
of
young
people
C2
Campus
Did you feel safe at your last
school?
Yes No
Yes
Number
of
Young
People
No I don’t know
Responses
Do You Feel Safe At Your Current
School?
80
60
40
20
0
C1 C2 Total

2. Could this be true?
When looking at the data above about what made
them feel unsafe at their last school, it was the words
the young people used below that was of particular
concern. The two diagrams are the words used by
young people at each campus to describe what made
them feel unsafe at their last school.
The bigger the word, the more often it was used to
describe by different young people. Glaring us right in
the middle “teachers”. Look at bit closer you will then
see “rude teachers”, “aggressive teachers”, “creepy
teachers” among other things. One cannot ignore, to
this disengaged young people, us as teachers are
making them feel unsafe. I would argue, not through
intent, but definitely in impact.
At first thought, you might say, yeah they are
disengaged young people, they hate teachers, they
hate school. But what happened in the survey
question that follows wasn’t expected.
When young people were then surveyed on what your
current school does differently compared to your last
school to make you feel safe, it was like a mirror
image. Again they highlighted the teachers and how
they were treated, but this time in a positive light, and
how the teachers made them feel safe.
Teachers have the greatest impact on young people
(Hattie, 2003), yet the data above, from those who
need the most support, could suggest that we are not
giving these young people what they need. The words
used by these young people implies that we are
potentially having the opposite effect to what Hattie
(2003) talks about. I don’t know about you, but this
data definitely made me think about the young people
I have been challenged by in the past, and the impact I
had on that young person.
Do we as a profession, need to be more conscious of
our interactions with disengaged young people? Do
we need to model how alternate schools treat young
people to mainstream teachers to empower them to
connect with the young people that need them the
most.
There is no argument from me, teaching is tough. A
class of 30 and you have that couple of young people
that just know your buttons, it is just tough. The
significant increase in alternate schools suggests we
need to reflect on what we are doing in education.
Conclusion
The why to young people feeling unsafe outlined
previously (the way they were treated by young
people), in addition to the significant number of
disengaged young people outlining that they didn’t
feel safe at their last school has to make us reflect on
our practices. Why are disengaged young people, who
need us (educators) the most feeling so unsafe
because of us?
I firmly believe, no teacher goes to school to do a bad
job. No teacher is knowingly making a student feel
unsafe at school. Yet the data from this research
implies that we are potentially missing the mark, we
are missing one of our key responsibilities as
educators to create a safe learning environment.
So I ask you this question, do the disengaged young
people at your school (those most in need of support,
struggling the most, those most at risk of dropping
out, the squeaky wheels, the ones that sit in the back
of the room) feel safe?
References
Please contact the Editor for a full list of references.